Extreme saving followed by extreme ER

[Sam]

Anyone here followed the travels of Tim and Cindy Travis?

I just finished reading their first book, The Road That Has No End.  Quite entertaining.  Before deciding to drop out of society, they saved for 5 years at the rate of 75% of their income.

Then they quit their jobs, sold everything (except the house), got on their bicycles, and traveled the world.  That was in 2002.  It's been more than 4 years now, and they have no plan to stop yet.  Brave, advanturous, and lucky souls!

 

[janeofalltrades]

I have never heard of them, I googled their names and came up with their travel site. http://www.downtheroad.org/

Their now Bicycling in China, very cool.

I'm booking marking the site for further reading

 

[mountaintosea]

It doesn't have to be a dream! When I turned 40 I took a year off from work and traveled around the world for 11 months. You can buy a round the world ticket. Then it cost $1600. You can spend as little as you want. The entire year came to about $16,000. That was less than if I stayed home.
There are all types of people from all kinds of countries traveling this way. It was one of the best years of my life. Since then I've done a few trips here and there. Whenever I travel I meet people who are still traveling this way.
Thanks for the website.

 

[Scrooge]

You can buy a round the world ticket. Then it cost $1600.

A round the world ticket? Could you please clarify how that works?

 

[Texas Proud]

A round the world ticket? Could you please clarify how that works?

I know people who did in from the UK...

Basically, you buy a 'ticket'... you can travel to an 'X', number of destinations, stay as little or as long as you like... but you have to keep traveling in one direction.. (if you start going east, all travel must be east)...

The 'X' is the part I am not sure... I know someone who had unlimited trips.. as long as you go the same direction.. but I also heard from someone who had only 10 flights.. so maybe the airline is the key..

But, your legs can be huge... like, fly down to South Africa... then come back to Europe (as long as you are more east).. then hit the Middle East, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, US... move east a bit, down to west of South America, back up to the US, down to the east of SA... then back to the UK.. but, all must be done in one year.

 

[justin]

I got interested in round the world travel a year ago. From my recollection, most tickets were in the $2000-$3000 range, with the price depending on when and where you fly. 15-20 cities would be the upper end, 10 cities would be the lower end. I don't recall the east-only restrictions, but it may depend on what tickets you buy. You couldn't repeat a city (unless it was a transfer point).

Some of the more exotic destinations added significantly to the cost. There are a few websites (none that I recall now) that allow you to put in any cities you want, optimize the flight order for cost savings, and browse stock RTW tickets for popular routes.

The one downside I recall is the fixed dates and times of the flights. You couldn't bum around in one country for a few weeks and then move on to the next city when the time suits you. You might hit a problem if you think Tashkent, Uzbekistan might be fun for 1 week, and on day 2 you realize it is not what you expected, but you are stuck for 5 more days (unless you want to pay through the nose for a ticket change and the new last minute 1 way flight to your next destination). Or say you get to Kuala Lumpur where you have scheduled a 3 day stay, and realize it is the most beautiful city on earth and you want to spend an extra month there.

My conclusions were that the RTW ticket would be an excellent economical means to travel around the world on a budget, if you can live with the fixed nature of the dates of travel.

Lonely planet's thorntree forums might be a good place to search (or ask) for more info on these RTW tickets and how to obtain them and/or links to websites that sell them.

 

[REWahoo]

Round the world tickets were discussed here...

http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=7162.0

 

[Scrooge]

Fascinating! You spend half your working life traveling and then you run into something completely different  Thanks for the tips, off I go to investigate  8)

 

[justin]

Here's a site:
http://www.airtreks.com/tools/TripPlannerIntro.cgi

and here:
http://www.bootsnall.com/tripplanner.shtml

I verified that the $2000-3000 is still a valid range - not sure if it includes taxes and such. Visas are extra too I would guess.

 

[Sam]

I have never heard of them, I googled their names and came up with their travel site. http://www.downtheroad.org/

Their now Bicycling in China, very cool.

I'm booking marking the site for further reading

Actually, they finished China few months ago, rode down to Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia.  They are now ready to ride to Singapore and fly over to Australia.

They have been doing this for more than 4 years now, and their expense is less than $40/day.

 

[mountaintosea]

A round the world ticket? Could you please clarify how that works?

The trip I took was from July of 1992 to 1993. Like other posters have stated you can only go in one direction. You must use the entire ticket in a year. They have various routes you can take. You decide your destinations ahead of time. You can also devise your own route.
But I had no set time to leave or arrive at any destination. When I was ready to move on I went to a travel agent in the particular country I was in and they booked a flight for me. The airlines were predetermined.
The trip I took was from LAX to London. I traveled around the UK on trains and buses. I took a ferry to Northern Ireland and started traveling around on buses. Then I took a bus into Ireland. Took buses around Ireland.
Went back over to England. Then in early September I believe, took a ferry over to the continent. Bought some passes for the train. Traveled around Europe. Took a ferry to Morocco. Then back up through France to London.
Flew from London to Cairo. Three weeks in Egyt (trains). Flew from Cairo to Bangkok. Took various trains etc. in Southeat Asia down to Singapore and back.
Flew from Bangkok to Hong kong, hopped over to China. Bought additional tickets to boats, and flights within China. Back to Hong Kong. The last leg was a flight to Taiwan. That was in June of 1993 and China wore me out so I did not explore Taiwan but continued back to LAX.
I decided from day to day where I would go. I met people along the way who gave advice. Unfortunately I really do not speak another language. Took some French in high school but didn't remember much. I was a little more than embarrassed when most other people spoke more than one langauge. Especially meeting a 10 year old boy in Morocco who spoke 5 langauges! (including Japanese).
It was quite easy. The travel agent explained it all. I believe if you stay with one airline then it might be more expensive. But the travel agency put the various airlines together for me. The travel agency was out of San Franciso but I don't know if they still exist. I would check around. Great experience.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Especially meeting a 10 year old boy in Morocco who spoke 5 langauges! (including Japanese).

The man who speaks three languages is called, 'tri-lingual'.
Teh man who speaks two languages is called, 'bi-lingual'.
The man who speaks one language is called, 'an American'.

Ed (semi-literate in Albertan)

 

[Nords]

The man who speaks one language is called, 'an American'.

American English, Texan, Bostonian, Californian, British English, Canadian English, or Strine?

 

[Sam]

The man who speaks one language is called, 'an American'.

TexasMan and TexasWoman are at an intersection in Rome waiting to cross the street.  A European riding a scooter stops in front of them and politely asks:

¿Dónde está el Vatican?

No response.  The Euporean tries again:

Où est le Vatican ?

Silence...

Wo ist das Vatican?

No answer...

¿Dónde está el Vatican?

Still nothing.  Disappointed, the European speeds away.  TexasWoman turns to TexasMan:

Honey, we need to learn a foreign languague.

TexasMan, disappointed at his companion, says:

Why?  That guy knows four languages and it still does him no good.

 

[unclemick]

American English, Texan, Bostonian, Californian, British English, Canadian English, or Strine?

9th Ward

heh heh heh heh - perhaps soon to become an 'ancient' language? Looka cap - I'll talk rite after my second cup of coffee.

 

[HFWR]

Cunning linguist...

 

[jacob]

I just finished reading their first book, The Road That Has No End.* Quite entertaining.* Before deciding to drop out of society, they saved for 5 years at the rate of 75% of their income.

Sounds familiar. Embarrassingly enough, this is the first time I have heard about them. I'm looking over their website now, but I haven't found a discussion about the 75% for 5 years yet. Do you have a link?

 

[REWahoo]

Jacob, since this thread is more than 4 years old you may not get much of a response. Some of the posters are long gone...

 

[jacob]

I'm optimistic. The OP I quoted is still around.

 

[Purron]

Fastinating, but not for me. I'm a homebody. More power to them though!

Jean Cocteau: 'I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.'

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Fastinating, but not for me. I'm a homebody. More power to them though!

Jean Cocteau: 'I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.'

Lovely quote and so very true...with cats maybe even more so than dogs (and I am a dog person). The little creatures do have a way of winding their tendrils around one's heart and can make a house a home. I enjoy coming home to my little dog every day and he breathes some life into the four walls. I admire your work with animal rescue, Purron. I do a little work in this area but not as much as you.

 

[Sam]

Sounds familiar. Embarrassingly enough, this is the first time I have heard about them. I'm looking over their website now, but I haven't found a discussion about the 75% for 5 years yet. Do you have a link?

I am positive it was on their website when I read it. But their website has evolved from disorganized to super spaghetti since. Anyway it was also in the book, which I can no longer locate.

 

[WanderALot]

They talk about it for a bit in the 3rd paragraph here:
Bicycle touring around the world on a bicycle

 

[DangerMouse]

It's really weird the things you focus on, but my immediate thought was that anyone who spent that much time on the bike would have the physique of Lance Armstrong and I'm not seeing it in the pictures.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I speak 3 languages: english, profanity and sarcasm.